Garfield & Friends Jim Davis Cartoonist, Author, Producer, Director, President, Founder, Screenwriter, Playwright, Environmentalist, Philanthropist — all these titles can be used to describe Jim Davis, best-known as the creator of GARFIELD. Jim Davis, 1947 Jim Davis was born July 28, 1945 in Marion, Indiana, and raised on a small farm with his parents, James and Betty Davis, and his younger brother, Dave (Doc). Like most farms, the barnyard had its share of stray cats; about 25 at one time, by Jim's estimation. As a child, he suffered serious bouts with asthma and was often bedridden. Forced inside, away from regular farm chores, he whiled away the hours drawing pictures. Gnorm Gnat In college, he studied art and business before going to work for TUMBLEWEEDS creator, Tom Ryan. There, he learned the skills and discipline necessary to become a syndicated cartoonist and began his own strip, GNORM GNAT. When he tried to sell the strip to a newspaper syndicate he was told, "It's funny, but bugs?

Who can relate to a bug?" After five years of GNORM, Davis crushed the bug strip idea and tried a new tact, studying the comics pages closely. He noticed there were a lot of successful strips about dogs, but none about cats! Combining his wry wit with the art skills he had honed since childhood, GARFIELD, a fat, lazy, lasagna loving, cynical cat was born. Davis says Garfield is a composite of all the cats he remembered from his childhood, rolled into one feisty orange fur ball. Garfield was named after his grandfather, James Garfield Davis. Garfield first appeared in June 19, 1978 The strip debuted on June 19, 1978 in 41 U.S. newspapers. Several months after the launch, the Chicago Sun-Times cancelled GARFIELD. Over 1300 angry readers demanded that GARFIELD be reinstated. It was, and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, GARFIELD is read in over 2100 newspapers by 200 million people.

Guinness World Records™, named GARFIELD “The Most Widely Syndicated Comic Strip in the World.” Davis’s peers at the National Cartoonist Society honored him with Best Humor Strip (1981 and 1985), the Elzie Segar Award (1990), and the coveted Reuben Award (1990), the top award presented to a cartoonist by NCS members. Garfield quickly became a sensation in the licensing world, too, inspiring Davis to form his own company to take care of Garfield business concerns. Paws, Inc., founded in 1981, manages the worldwide rights for the famous fat cat, and Davis serves as President. Jim has won four Emmy Awards Garfield’s fame spilled over to television and Davis penned eleven primetime specials for CBS-TV. He received ten Emmy nominations and four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program. Movies were next, and Twentieth Century Fox turned out Garfield: The Movie (‘04), and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (‘06).

Davis also wrote the original screenplays and executive produced three animated features for DVD: Garfield Gets Real (‘07), Garfield’s Fun Fest (‘08), and Garfield’s Pet Force (‘09). Also in 2009. “The Garfield Show” made its debut on Cartoon Network. Today, the CGI animated cartoon is in its fourth season and is seen in 131 countries, including China, where CCTV broadcasts the show daily. Davis’s philanthropy has been directed at educational and environmental projects. He founded The Professor Garfield Foundation in cooperation with Ball State University, to support children’s literacy. A free educational web site is the cornerstone of the Foundation’s work to date. Davis spearheaded reforestation, prairie and wetlands restorations, and built the world’s first all natural wastewater plant for commercial use. He was awarded the National Arbor Day Foundation’s Good Steward and Special Projects Award, and the Indiana Wildlife Federations’ Conservationist of the Year Award. Davis spends his leisure time golfing, gardening, fishing, and enjoying his wife, children, and grandchildren.

In a nod to Garfield’s friends in the comic strip, Davis also keeps one cat, Nermal, and a dog, Pooky. Advertisement TV ACRES: Animals > Cats > Cartoon > Garfield the Cat Cartoon Cats Garfield the Cat - Created by cartoonist Jim Davis in 1977, (the strip first appeared in print on June 18, 1978) the Garfield character is a selfish, overweight orange and black feline with drooping eyelids who had a mad obsession for lasagna. Davis' inspiration for Garfield probably came from his childhood on a farm near Fairmont, Indiana where he was surrounded by some 25 cats. The Garfield character is named after Davis' grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis. The highly pessimistic, Garfield (Lorenzo Music provided the voice for his thoughts) is a tribute to the lazy person in all of us. Garfield is owned by a young cartoonist named Jon Arbuckle who also owns a happy, slobbering little dog named Odie whom Garfield perpetually taunts. Garfield's idea of a daily routine is sleeping, eating and occasionally biting a mail man or two just for the fun of it.

Garfield's animal friends include Arlene, a sarcastic pink cat, Nermal, the "World's Cutest Kitten", and Pooky , Garfield's loveable, huggable teddy bear and confidant. Syndicated in over 2000 newspapers, Garfield the Cat has been the subject of such prime time animated TV specials as Here Comes Garfield (the first special seen in 1982), Garfield in the Rough, Garfield in Paradise, The Garfield Halloween Adventure, A Garfield Thanksgiving, as well as his own Saturday morning program GARFIELD AND FRIENDS/CBS/1988-95 and the theatrical cartoon (with "Cat-i-tude") Garfield: The Movie (2004) and the sequel Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006). Jim Davis, Garfield's creator, lives and works somewhere off a county road in Muncie, Indiana. Ironically, he no longer has any cats because his wife is allergic to them.

External Links 1000+ images about Cartoonist: Jim Davis "Garfield" on Pinterest | Jim davis, Garfield cartoon and Garfield 2 Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Cartoonist: Jim Davis "Garfield" Cartoonist Jim Davis-The Man Behind Garfield - American Profile Home Odd Jobs Cartoonist Jim Davis-The Man Behind Garfield Cartoonist Jim Davis-The Man Behind Garfield Odd Jobs, People David Mudd Growing up on a small farm near Fairmount, Ind. (pop. 2,866), Jim Davis figured he would follow in his father's footsteps and become a farmer. But as severe bouts of asthma made that job seem unlikely, the bedridden youngster began drawing to pass the time. It was the genesis for what would become his career as a cartoonist and creator of one of America's best-loved characters-Garfield the cat. "I loved farming but just couldn't do it," says Davis, 63, at his studio complex in the countryside near Albany, Ind. (pop. 2,368). "I kept having asthma attacks. Being asthmatic, I spent a lot of time inside.

TV wasn't as prevalent in the 1950s, so my mom would shove paper and pencil in my hand to entertain me." Those early stick drawings were so crude that young Jim "had to label what they were," recalls his father, James William Davis, 88. "You couldn't tell if it was a horse or a dog. His people always had belly buttons though." Rural roots During his youth, Davis and his younger brother, David, helped with farm chores and raised Black Angus cattle. Active in 4-H, he won many county fair ribbons with his prize heifer Pepper. "I learned to work through the asthma," Davis says. "When I couldn't breathe, I would grab the headboard of my bed and pull myself up to breathe and let myself back down to exhale. To this day, I appreciate my health, appreciate being able to breathe." A shy child who stuttered, Davis attended a three-room school with two grades in each room. There he met Nellie Barnhardt, a teacher who helped him overcome his stuttering. "She would touch my throat and say, 'The words are in there, you just have to let them out one at a time,'" Davis recalls.

"She taught me to say everything in my head first, to speak slowly, and I still do that today." At Fairmount High School, Davis played football and acted in theater productions. With 65 students in his graduating class, he is grateful that he attended a small country school. "I weighed 100 pounds and was asthmatic, and I still got to start in football all four years. That's the beauty of a small school. You can do so many things." After graduation, Davis attended Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. "I have the distinction of earning one of the lowest cumulative grade point averages in the history of the university," he says with a chuckle. "A fellow classmate named David Letterman earned the other one." Creating a cat After college, Davis "lucked into a position" as an assistant to Tom Ryan, creator of the popular Tumbleweeds comic strip. "I saw the discipline and long hours it took to be a success," Davis says. "I started trying to get my own strip syndicated.

It took years of trying, but finally I found a comics editor who saw something in my work." Davis originally created Gnorm Gnat with an all-insect cast, but editors told him insects aren't funny. So he turned his cartoonist talents closer to home, working on an idea about a bachelor cartoonist and his fat cat. The lazy feline kept getting all the good lines, so Davis wisely put the spotlight on the lasagna-loving, coffee-drinking, self-centered, dog-hating cat. Why a cat? "I looked around and there were plenty of strips about dogs, but none about cats," Davis says. "I knew cats. We had 25 at one time on the farm." He named his creation after his grandfather, whom he describes as "a big guy with a dry wit who appeared gruff but deep down inside was a softie." "Garfield is a human in a cat suit," Davis explains. "People identify with him because he says and does the stuff we'd all like to say and do if we thought we could get away with it." Since the orange cat with the attitude waddled on the comic page on June 19, 1978, his popularity has spread.

Garfield holds the Guinness World Record as the most widely syndicated comic strip, with 230 million daily readers. More than 135 million copies of Garfield books-translated into 27 languages-have been sold around the world. The cat also is featured on products from cups to key chains, and bedspreads to leather jackets. The entire Garfield enterprise is administered from Paws Inc., the comical cat's headquarters near Albany. "Staying in Indiana has been good for my work," Davis says. "I'm happy here and, for me, being happy is very conducive to doing humor. I love the people here, the seasons, the trees, the quiet and lack of traffic. If things get hectic, I can go out and take a walk in the woods." The Paws complex is a state-of-the-art studio and business facility with about 60 artists, writers and licensing agents, many of whom have worked with Davis for decades. The Davis home also is on the site. "I hired my wife, Jill; that's how I met her," Davis says with a grin. "She's been here 27 years, and she's the vice president of licensing.

Actually I work for her, which is a good arrangement, because it frees me up for the creative stuff." Jill and Jim have three children: Ashley, 24, who works in the Paws office; Chris, 22, a local police officer; and James, 29, serving with the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan. His parents live nearby and often meet their cartoonist son for lunch in the Paws cafeteria. Even today, Davis honors his farm upbringing. "I get up about 4 in the morning," he says. "That's quiet time for me. I love to watch the sun rise." Commuting about 100 yards to work, Davis tries to imagine what antics his witty kitty will reveal that day. "I watch Garfield. He writes his own stuff, really. I don't write. I edit," he says. "Garfield performs in my head. If I tried to make him do something funny, especially something he didn't want to do, it would look forced." Never in his wildest dreams did Davis expect Garfield would become such a success. "I was just drawing cartoons when I was little to make my mom laugh. She is still my best audience," Davis says.

So what does Mom think of the feisty feline? "Well, he is very ornery," says Betty Davis, 86, giving her son an affectionate nudge in the side. "If Garfield was my son, I'd have to make him behave." Popular Cartoon Cats: Find Your Favorite Cartoon Cat Clothing Home decor accessories This list is just a small sample of the many cartoon-inspired gifts you’ll find online. But there’s more... You will find high-end collectibles, cute mugs, cool hats, fun watches, plush toys... and much more: If your friend loves art, give him a gift of cat cartoon art . Want something cool? Check out The Cartoonizer at . This cool tool lets you create your own highly customizable cartoon cats, which can then be placed on all sorts of merchandise! Now here’s the fun part. Are you new to the world of feline cartoons? Would you like to learn more about them? Do you want to reminisce about your childhood’s favorite cartoon? Below you will find a list of several popular cartoon kitties. Enjoy! Felix the Cat, the Wonderful, Wonderful Cat! Felix is one of the earliest cartoon cats. He is also one of the best-known cartoon cats in the world.

Indeed, Felix was not only a very popular film character, but he was also the first image to be broadcast over a television transmitter. The earliest version of Felix first appeared in 1919 in the Paramount Pictures short film Feline Follies under the name of Master Tom. He was later renamed Felix, and – as the saying goes – the rest is history. Felix the Cat also starred in Felix in Hollywood and Felix Saves the Day, among other movies. In 1953, Felix the Cat short films were syndicated and shown on TV. A television series followed, which became very popular. Its theme song, Felix the Wonderful Cat, which was written by Winston Sharples, became very popular as well. Interestingly, both Pat Sullivan (an Australian cartoonist and film producer) and Otto Messmer (an American animator) claimed to be the creator of Felix the Cat. Needless to say, Felix the Cat memorabilia makes a wonderful gift for cat lovers who are also fans of this wonderful cat. Garfield One of the most popular cartoon cats, Garfield was created by Jim Davis. It first appeared on June 19, 1978 and it quickly became a hit.

The series follows the comings and goings of Garfield the Cat, Jon Arbuckle (Garfield's human parent) and Odie the Dog (Garfield’s drooly nemesis). So who’s Garfield? He’s a fat, black-striped, orange cat. A pampered cat, Garfield thinks he’s the master of the home. He also believes that he's smarter than Jon, his long-suffering human companion. Garfield is self-centered and arrogant, and yet he’s utterly delightful. He also suffers from very human emotions such as apathy and boredom. I think that these human qualities make him very appealing to his fans. He also experiences human issues such as dieting and difficult relationships. Garfield also became a movie star. Garfield: The Movie, opened in 2004. There was also a television series, Garfield and Friends , and several television specials. You can find DVD sets of the television series and the specials. Obviously, these make great gifts for Garfield fans. More information about Garfield Sylvester the Cat Sylvester J. Pussycat Senior (or Sylvester for short) is another beloved cartoon cat best known for his lisp.

One of the stars of Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, Sylvester is particularly known for constantly chasing Tweety Bird, a seemingly innocent yellow canary known for often outsmarting Sylvester. But Tweety was not the only Sylvester’s nemesis. He was also paired with Speedy Gonzalez and Hippety Hopper. This fun feline first appeared in the 1945 short film Life with Feathers. Sylvester and Tweety Bird appeared together for the first time in the 1947 cartoon Tweetie Pie. Interestingly, in this cartoon Sylvester was named Thomas. You can find posters and prints featuring Sylvester . Art inspired by this black-and-white feline make an excellent gift idea for both cat lovers and Sylvester fans. More about Sylvester the Cat Tom (from Tom and Jerry) This couple of cartoon characters, created by the animators William Hannah and Joseph Barbera, is one my favorites.Thomas (Tom) is a gray cat who’s always getting in trouble because of the provocations of Jerry (a mouse that lives is Tom's house). Most of the time, Jerry is disturbing Tom and Tom is running after Jerry.

It is so much fun to see them entangled in impossible situations. Metro-Goldwyn Mayer produced Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons from 1940 to 1958. Other studios produced later versions. Not surprisingly, many of the original cartoons won Academy awards. Tom and Jerry reappeared in TV cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions (from 1975 to 1977, and from 1990 to 1993). Filmation Studios produced Tom and Jerry cartoons during the 1980s. The feature-length film Tom and Jerry: The Movie debuted in 1992 nationwide. Do your friends love cats and/or this dynamic duo? Consider giving them Tom and Jerry pictures. They make wonderful cat lover gifts. More about Top Cat Heathcliff Heathcliff, like Garfield, is a fat, black-striped, orange cat that first appeared in a comic strip created by George Gately. The strip debuted in 1973. Heathcliff is a self-centered cat who enjoys annoying the local fishmonger. Sonja, a chubby but very feminine white cat, is Heathcliff’s girlfriend.

Heathcliff also appeared on ABC’s The Heathcliff & Dingbat Show, which began on October 4, 1980. This particular show was produced by Ruby-Spears. DiC produced another version of Heathcliff titled The Heathcliff and the Cadillac Cats show, which featured Riff Raff, Hector, Mungo, and Wordsworth. This version of the show is the one I saw when I was little. The show also featured Cleo (Riff Raff’s girlfriend) and Leroy (the junkyard dog). More about Heathcliff Hello Kitty Hello Kitty is an extremely popular cartoon cat created by Sanrio, a Japanese company. This cute kitten was born in November, 1974. Hello Kitty is a white, mouth-less, big-eyed cat. She’s girly, cute, and impossibly sweet. Hello Kitty lives in London with her parents and her twin sister Mimmy. She also has several friends, including Dear Daniel, Chococat, Cinnamoroll, and Tippy. Hello Kitty's pet is Charmmy Kitty, a lovely Persian cat.

Hello Kitty's image appears on over 20,000 products, including toys, purses, clothing items, high-end jewelry, electronic games, and even a car. She has become quite a fashion icon not only among young girls, but also among teenagers and even adults. More about Hello Kitty Krazy Kat Krazy Kat is a comic strip authored by George Herriman. Krazy Kat was part of an earlier comic strip called The Dingbat Family and it debuted on April 23, 1916. The strip later appeared by itself on the Sunday edition of several US newspapers. Characters of the comic strip include: the title character, Krazy Kat, a cat who is believed to be a female Ignatz Mouse, Krazy Kat’s love interest Officer (Offisa) Pupp, Krazy Kat’s devoted protector. The story line revolves around the relationships among these three characters. Krazy Kat was animated several times from 1916 to 1964. Krazy Kat is definitely one of the most complex cartoon cat characters ever created. Want to read more about Krazy Kat? Here's more Eek! The Cat Eek! The Cat is an animated TV series featuring a purple cat named Eek.

It was created by Savage Steve Holland and Bill Kopp, and it appeared on Fox Kids during the 1990s. Eek’s motto is "it never hurts to help". And as you can imagine, Eek's overly optimistic nature often gets him in hot water. Other characters of the series include: Mom, Wendy Elizabeth and J.B, and Eek’s girlfriend Annabelle. More about Eek! the Cat Mooch (Mutts) Mooch is a lovable kitty who is best friends with a dog (!). He is one of the main characters of Mutts, a daily comic strip that chronicles the adventures of Mooch and his best pal Earl the Dog. The strip also spotlights the relationship between this pair and their human friends. Mutts was created by Patrick McDonnell, an acclaimed cartoonist and animal advocate. It debuted in 1994. From time to time, the strip devotes full episodes to raising awareness about animal rights. More about Mutts The Pride: A True Story Cat Cartoon The Pride - A True Story Cat Cartoon, tells the real life adventures of Johnny, the strip's crazy – but adorable – feline protagonist.

The Pride also recounts the interactions between Johnny, his gang of cat "friends" (former centers of the universe before Johnny's appearance), and their human companion, Jane. The Pride was created by Jane Denny, a talented artist and cat lover. She was the recipient of the 2007 Muse Medallion for Best Cat Cartoon, awarded by Purina and the Cat Writers’ Association in their 2007 communications contest. Have fun with your favorite cartoon cats! More cat cartoons . Here's another list of feline cartoon characters. Cartoons & Comics Cartoons & Comics Comic Strip Cats Krazy Kat In 1913 cartoonist George Herriman spun off the "Krazy Kat" comic strip from an earlier strip of his, "The Dingbat Family". The strip, which ran daily for the next thirty years, revolved around the unrequited love that Krazy Kat had for Ignatz, a mouse, who responded by throwing bricks at Krazy's head. Because of it's surreal visuals and creative use of language Krazy Kat was one of the first comic strips to be considered a "serious" work of art by critics.

Bill the Cat Bill first appeared in Berkeley Breathed's comic strip Bloom County sometime in the 1980's and then again in his later work. Despite having a limited vocabulary consisting mostly of "Ack" Bill has had a number of adventures including both film and rock stardom as well as two unsuccessful runs at the presidency. Bucky Katt Bucky has been appearing daily in the comic strip Get Fuzzy since 1999. The strip follows the life of an advertising exec and his two pets, a sweet, good natured but dumb dog and Bucky, a selfish, mean, exploitive but ultimately self defeating tyrant of a Siamese cat. B. Kliban While Kliban's name is now synonymous with his cat images he had actually been drawing cartoons for Playboy Magazine for thirteen years before an editor there compiled his cat cartoons into the 1975 book "Cat" and launched a marketing juggernaut of Kliban Cat products. Catbert Appearing in Scott Adams "Dilbert" comic strip Catbert is the evil director of human resources at a computer software company.

Relying heavily on the medieval association of the cat and the devil (Catbert is colored red on Sundays) the cats main purpose is to make the other characters lives as miserable as possible. Courageous Cat In 1950 Bob Kane parodied his Batman and Robin creation with the children's TV cartoon crime fighting duo of Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse. Courageous parallels the Batman character to the hilt, driving the Cat Mobile, responding to the Cat Signal and living in the Cat Cave. Oddly, it's more likely that the 60's Batman TV show was based on this campy cartoon than on the original comic book character. Fat Freddys Cat The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers was one of cartoonist Gilbert Shelton's late 60's era underground comix. The story revolved around three hippie stoner brothers one of whom was named Fat Freddy and had a cat. Of course since Fat Freddy's Cat was obviously smarter than the boys he ended up having his own self titled comic books later on in the '70's .

Fritz the Cat Created by '60's underground comix artist and illustrator Robert Crumb "Fritz" is the X rated central character in a world populated by humanistic animals. The character later appeared in two feature length animated films, the X rated "Fritz the Cat" and "The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat"; much to Crumb's displeasure. Heathcliff Heathcliff started life as a 1973 comic strip by George Gately. The strip follows the antics of the title character in his humorous quest for food, feline affection and acceptance in a hostile world filled with shop owners, fisherman, sanitation workers, milkmen and canines. Garfield Launched as a comic strip in 1978 by Jim Davis, Garfield continues to appear in over 2,000 newspapers daily. The ubiquitous Garfield has had his own feature film, numerous books, cartoons, TV specials and stage shows. With his likeness on wrapping paper, beach towels, greeting cards and t-shirts Garfield's hard to miss. Oh yes, he likes to eat and sleep..... a lot. Very catlike that Garfield.

Orwell T Catt Created by local cartoonist Phil Frank for his Farley comic strip, which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Orwell T Catt began life as the leader of the feral cat colony in Golden Gate Park testifying before the SF Parks Commission concerning the disappearance of songbirds in the park. He later went on to become Chief of Feline Security at The White House for the Clinton's cat, Socks. Gary Larson Larson created single panel cartoons under the title "The Far Side" for fifteen years until his retirement in 1995. While not primarily a cat cartoonist many of his panels featured felines as their central character(s). Sylvia's Cat Nicole Hollander has been chronicling the exploits of Sylvia and her cat for over thirty years in her comic strip and books. Her books of cartoons, "My Cat's Not Fat, He's Just Big Boned" and "Everything Here is Mine", speak to the issue of who is really the central character of the series.

Animated Cartoon Cats 11 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Garfield’ 11 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Garfield’ By Danny Gallagher June 18, 2012 3:29 PM REDDIT China Photos, Getty Images/20th Century Fox/ArcaMax The newspaper might become less and less of a staple on our lawns or breakfast tables but even the youngest among us can recognize one of its most iconic and colorful stars (and we don’t mean Paul Krugman.) We’re talking about a certain lasagna-loving fat cat with a very heavy disdain for Mondays. ‘Garfield’ may not be as critically revered as iconic favorites like ‘Peanuts,’ ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ and ‘The Far Side,’ but it is without a doubt the most successful comic strip series of all time. It appears every day in a number of newspapers after more than 30 years in syndication, has more than 200,000,000 readers across the globe and creator Jim Davis has reaped countless merchandising rights and profits from toys, phones, T-shirts and others.

To celebrate Garfield Day (the strip debuted on June 19th, 1978), here are 11 things you might not know about everyone’s favorite fat orange cat. 1. Jim Davis’ first comic strip was about bugs Schultz Library Garfield’s pop Jim Davis got his professional start in cartooning with the long-running strip ‘Tumbleweeds’ when he got the knack to go at a series of his own. His first creation was a sarcastic bug named “Gnorm Gnat” but he was only able to sell the strip to one paper in his native Indiana. The biggest problem was that editors didn’t think readers could identify with bugs as characters. He took the five years of rejection as a learning experience and scanned the comics’ section to discover they were filled with strips about dogs, but none about cats. 2. Garfield is named after James A. Garfield, but not the 20th president B. Gomer, Hulton Archive/Getty Davis grew up on his grandfather’s farm in Indiana, where there were a number of cats around his home and barn. Garfield’s wry and grumpy attitude came not from the cats, but from their loveable grumpy owner, James A.

Garfield Davis who Jim described as “a large cantankerous man.” 3. The strip originally had a fourth central character garfield.nfshost.com Davis’ initial run of the strips included another character who introduced one of its regular faces. Lyman was Jon’s mustachioed roommate and the dog Odie’s former owner. Davis said he needed someone for Jon Arbuckle to communicate with since Garfield couldn’t talk. But he soon found a way for Garfield and Odie to communicate to their owner, thus sending Lyman to the dustbin of forgotten characters along with Garfield’s annoying grey doppelganger Nermal . 4. Garfield originally walked on all fours until Charles Schulz taught him how to walk on two feet China Photos/Getty Davis’ initial drawings of Garfield made him look like a morbidly obese feline than the merely chubby tabby we know and love. His creator wanted to make him more endearing while retaining some of the personality features that earned him so many readers. Three years after Davis created the strip and started syndicating it, he drew the strip at a Hollywood studio shared by animator Bill Melendez who worked with ‘Peanuts’ creator Charles M.

Schulz on animated films such as ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas.’ One day, Schulz found Davis trying to draw Garfield and suggested he draw the cat with bigger feet to make him stand on two feet. Thus, the Garfield we know today was born. 5. The Chicago Sun Times cancelled the strip but a massive reader protest brought it back Scott Olson, Getty A few years into Davis’ syndication in the late 1970s, one of his biggest papers dropped ‘Garfield’ just as it began to become popular. Davis said he never got a full explanation from the Chicago Sun-Times, except that it was for budgetary reasons. The readers, however, didn’t buy it and started a massive letter writing and phone call campaign to get the paper to change their mind. “Within a week, they had 1,300 phone calls and letters pour in demanding the return of ‘Garfield,'” Davis said in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch. “When I learned that, I thought: ‘Yes! We’re there.’ ” 6. It is the world’s most syndicated comic strip Posters.ws/Paws Inc.

While far from the oldest comic strip on the newspaper page (‘Gasoline Alley’ has a good six decades on it), ‘Garfield’ is without a doubt the most successful. Sure it has an endless stream of merchandising rights and entertainment spin-offs, but it’s also got the highest readership of any comic strip ever produced, a fact confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records . Since it started its initial syndication run with the Universal Press Syndicate, ‘Garfield’s’ peak appearance topped out at 2,570 newspapers in 2002. 7. ‘Garfield’ wasn’t Davis’ only comic strip Subscribe to TheFW on Davis’ work had earned him more than a few spots on the New York Times best seller list with his popular ‘Garfield’ books and national exposure for his work, but he noticed that something was still lacking in the comics section: a title for younger children. ‘U.S. Acres’ starred a bevy of barnyard animals with unique quirks, such as a rooster who overslept and a chick that still walked around in his egg shell.

(Artists Bob Scott and Brett Koth also contributed writing and drawing duties.) It only lasted three years in the newspapers, but was adapted for the popular Saturday morning cartoon show ‘Garfield and Friends.’ Classic ‘U.S. Acres’ strips are still published daily on the official Garfield website . Davis also drew a short lived strip based on the classic toy Mr. Potato Head . 8. A staff of cartoonists now helps put together the ‘Garfield’ strips Garfield's Diary Thanks to the success of ‘Garfield,’ Davis’ operations are now centralized on a strip of land in his Indiana home in a 50 staff operation called Paws Inc . A portion of these staffers handle the daily strip, according to an interview with the Telegraph . He spends a week writing a bunch of strips at a time and doodling the panels for a team of sketch artists in his ink and lettering departments who put together the final product. 9. Garfield almost had his own theme park Subscribe to TheFW on Davis has not only established himself as a successful cartoonist, but a successful businessman as well.

Since he bought a large portion of the merchandising rights from his syndicate, he parlayed those rights into his Paws business, part of whom handle all of the merchandising rights and prototype designs for various ‘Garfield’ toys, mugs, T-shirts and other products. One of Paws’ bigger projects was a full theme park built in Davis’ native Indiana, a $120 million project filled with ‘Garfield’-themed thrill rides, entertainment venues and water attractions, according to EW . Unfortunately, the idea was scraped and the closest it ever came was a dark water ride called ‘ Garfield’s Nightmare ‘ at Kennywood , an amusement park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. 10. The voice of ‘Garfield’ starred on ‘Rhoda’ and ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ Columbia Children who grew up with the Garfield cartoons will recognize the soothing tones of the late, great actor Lorenzo Music.

In addition to supplying Garfield’s voice on 12 primetime specials and the ‘Garfield and Friends’ series, Music was a successful writer/producer who worked on ‘The Mary Tyler Moore’ show and went on to create ‘The Bob Newhart Show.’ (He also composed its jazzy theme .) He also provided the voice of the unseen character Carlton the Doorman on ‘Rhoda’ and subbed in for Bill Murray as Peter Venkman on ‘The Real Ghostbusters.’ (Ironically Murray would take over for Music, who passed away in 2001, in the ‘Garfield’ films.) 11. Bill Murray agreed to do the ‘Garfield’ movie because he thought it was written by one of the Coen Brothers One of Davis’ and Paws’ longest running pet (no pun intended) projects was a big screen ‘Garfield’ movie and that dream finally came true in 2004 with Bill Murray providing the voice for the CGI animated fat cat.

Murray told GQ Magazine that he became interested in the project because he thought the “Joel Cohen” attached to the project as a screenwriter was actually one of the Coen Brothers, the acclaimed directors behind such classics as ‘The Big Lebowski’ and ‘Fargo.’ After they came back with a more acceptable salary offer, Murray began to record his lines and didn’t find the script up to the Coen Bros’ usual standards. Finally, he asked to see a rough cut of the film and that’s when someone explained to him that it was actually a different Joel Coen whose name was on the script. Thankfully, Bill got his revenge in his cameo in the horror comedy ‘Zombieland.’ Jim Davis | Garfield Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Betty Davis (Mother) James Robert "Jim" Davis (born July 28, 1945) is the creator of Garfield . As a cartoonist, he has also worked on Tumbleweeds (as an assistant to Tom Ryan), Gnorm Gnat , U.S. Acres (Orson's Farm outside the United States), and a strip about Mr. Potato Head.

He is the writer of all the CBS television specials and the direct-to-video movies, as well as a producer/executive producer for Garfield and Friends , the DTV movies, and The Garfield Show . He will be an executive producer for an upcoming film . Contents [ show ] Biography Jim Davis was born in Marion, Indiana on July 28th, 1945, and grew up on a small farm in Fairmount, Indiana with his father James William Davis, mother Anna Catherine (Carter) Davis, brother Dave, and twenty-five cats. Growing up, Davis recalled that after finishing his chores he would spend much of free time drawing; however he admitted his childhood drawings were of such poor quality that if he drew a cow he would have to label his drawing "cow", or else he would later fail to recognize his own work. Davis' childhood on a farm parallels the life of his cartoon character Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle , who was also raised on a farm with his parents and a brother, Doc Boy. Jon, too, is a cartoonist, and also celebrates his birth-day on July 28th. Davis attended Ball State University. While attending Ball State, he became a member of the Theta Xi fraternity.

Ironically, considering his fame as a cartoonist who draws a cat, his first wife Carolyn (Altekruse) was allergic to cats although they owned a dog named Molly. They have a son, James Alexander Davis. On July 16, 2000, Davis married his current wife Jill. They have three children: James, Ashley, and Christopher. Davis as of 2007 resides in Albany, Indiana, where he and his staff produce Garfield under his company, Paws, Inc. , begun in 1981. Paws, Inc. employs nearly fifty artists and licensing administrators, who work with agents around the world managing Garfield's vast licensing, syndication, and entertainment empire. Davis is a former President of the Fairfax, Indiana FFA chapter. Career Prior to creating Garfield, Davis worked for a local advertising agency and in 1969 began assisting Tom Ryan's comic strip, Tumbleweeds . He then created a comic strip, Gnorm Gnat , that ran for five years in The Pendleton Times, an Indiana newspaper.

Davis tried to sell it to a national comic strip syndicate, but an editor told him, "Your art is good, your gags are great, but bugs — nobody can relate to bugs!" In the final strip, Davis killed off all the characters by having them get stepped on by a giant foot. On June 19, 1978, Garfield started syndication in forty-one news-papers. Things were going well until the Chicago Sun-Times canceled the strip, prompting an outcry from 1,300 readers. Garfield was reinstated and the strip quickly became the fastest selling comic strip in the world. Today it is syndicated in 2400 news-papers and is read by approximately 200,000,000 readers each day. In the 1988-1994 cartoon series Garfield and Friends , one episode ("Mystic Manor") has a scene where Garfield slid down a fireman's pole in a haunted house, and Davis has a brief cameo as himself drawing a cartoon.

In the intro to one of the Garfield treasuries, there was a mock headline saying "Jim Davis Exposed as Fraud" showing Garfield at the drawing table creating a cartoonized Jim Davis, in which the fake headline reads that Davis is under investigation for plagiarism, as "Garfield himself draws his own strip!" The page shows Garfield drawing Jim Davis who looks like a bald Jon Arbuckle with a pony-tail. It is implied that Arbuckle is a drawing of a young Davis himself. In the 1980s, Davis also made the barn-yard slap-stick comic strip U.S. Acres , featuring Orson the Pig. Outside the U.S., the strip was known as Orson's Farm. Davis also made a 2000-2003 strip based on the toy Mr. Potato Head with Brett Koth. The idea was to do a strip from Davis' native farmland roots. In 1999, Davis authorized Garfield and Odie to be used by Boys Life magazine and the Cub Scouts in order to promote recruiting, where Odie and Garfield are seen wearing Cub Scout uniforms near a campfire or doing other outdoor related activities.

In 2005, Davis appeared in the music video Lazy Muncie, a parody of the Saturday Night Live video "Lazy Sunday". Most recently, Jim Davis founded The Professor Garfield Foundation, to support children’s literacy. Writer Wrote the libretto to Love on a Leash . Quotes “I needed a name and thought of my grandfather James A. Garfield Davis, a big, cantankerous, cynical man. The name seemed to fit the personality and shape of the character.” “The name Odie is really an inside joke. I wrote a commercial for a local car dealership featuring Odie, the village idiot. I liked the name, so I used it again.” “The name Jon Arbuckle came from an old coffee commercial I remember hearing. I’d also used the name as an ‘expert source’ to add ‘credibility’ to my speeches. When I created the comic strip, the name just seemed to fit the kind of poor sap who would get stuck with a cranky cat like Garfield.” “Doc Boy was named after my own brother, Dave ‘Doc’ Davis.

Doc isn't nearly as goofy as his cartoon namesake; he's goofier.” “I actually did have a waitress show me that she hadn’t shaved her legs. You can’t make up this stuff!”

Question: The cartoon character Garfield the Cat was created by which cartoonist?
Answer: Jim Davis